Zimmermania

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Seamless Yoke Sweater


Made this sweater for the Squid using yarn she chose (I offered 14 shades of red, 3 shades of pink, and then a "ok, grab what you want as long as there are 3 skeins of it." and she chose 2 shades of natural brown organic yarn from Full Belly Farm). Together we decided where the stripes should go. It was her idea to have the sleeves and majority of the yoke be the light color and the body be the darker color. I think it was a wise choice; I love the colors of this sweater.

I loosely followed Elizabeth Zimmermann's Seamless Yoke formula with some minor changes. One minor change was to eliminate all neck shaping - I'm a firm believer that all clothing for kids should be reversible. So I always either make the neck shaped for either side or eliminate shaping altogether. A yoke sweater begged to become a funnelneck so that's what I did.

I spread the yoke decreases out a bit further than EZ specifies. She suggests starting the decreases when you have reached half of the yoke's final height. I started a hair earlier than that, and if I were to do it again, I'd start even earlier. I feel like there's just a little bit too much room across the chest, especially when the kid is in motion. And my kid is almost always in motion.


I also spread the sleeve increases out a bit. Doing them as EZ specified left a too-bulky sleeve, in my opinion. Granted, the Squid is built like an average size 4T except for her height, so when I scale things for her they come out all wide and short. So it may be my kid's proportions that are off, not EZ's calculations.

All in all, I'm pleased to have made yet another classic piece from EZ's classic books. The Squid seems happy, too, as evidenced by the fact that I didn't even need to sneak in the photo. She did, however, request that I make sure to take a photo when her tongue was out and she wasn't looking at me. I was happy to comply.

11 Comments:

  • That is lovely and it seems you've a prodigal knitter in the house! Great colors for the sweater and the stripes are awesome.

    By Blogger KnittyLynn, at 6:22 PM  

  • I love this. I've been dying to make my daughter a brown sweater--her eyes are brown and I think she would look so nice in it. However, she's not quite as yet totally recognizable girly as Squid, so I may sneak in some pink along with the brown...we shall see. Thanks for the inspiration!

    By Blogger JenniferB, at 7:22 PM  

  • Great sweater!! Just wonderful - and adorable photos too.

    By Blogger kathy in Juneau, at 9:27 PM  

  • She looks so cute in your fantastic sweater. I love reading over your blog and seeing how much input the little one have in your knitting.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:52 PM  

  • What a great sweater! It looks great on her.

    By Blogger Liane, at 1:52 AM  

  • lovely and very elizabeth zimmermann. i love these brown knits for children. it suits most of them, oh so well. your daughter is no exception.

    By Blogger knititch, at 3:09 AM  

  • That's one of the coolest sweaters I've seen! Thanks for sharing. Your daughter has great design potential!

    By Blogger MJ, at 4:37 AM  

  • this is great! I live kind of near full Belly Farm- you might, too!? I love this sweater- good for grandkids...I need to try an EZ sweater...

    By Blogger kate, at 5:50 AM  

  • Thanks! I love brown on anyone, especially undyed yarns in any shade. i wouldn't worry about he "girly" - a think a beautiful classic sweater surpasses all gender stereotypes.

    as far as living near FBF - i live in New York City, across the continent from the farm. It's probably a good thing, too, because i simply love their yarns and I'm sure i'd be building an addition on the house to store it all.

    By Blogger Marnie, at 6:00 AM  

  • What sophisticated taste the Squid has! Beautiful job, and she'll probably grow into it sooner than you'd think.

    By Blogger Sarah / Blue Garter, at 11:03 AM  

  • Nice sweater, and very very nice and very, very beautiful girl!

    By Blogger Goce, at 2:02 AM  

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